PAHO teaches kids about safe drinking water
Water Day is being celebrated throughout Latin America and the Caribbean. Today the Pan American Health Organization held a fair in Belize City to teach the public, particularly children, about the importance of safe drinking water.
If you felt thirsty today and were in need of a cool drink of water, the Water Day Fair held on Caesar Ridge Road was a real oasis on a hot day.
Jacqueline Woods
“The message at today’s fair is: “All children should have the right to safe drinking water.” This the students have been learning through the various displays that show what each company does to purify its product.”
Rony Maza, Consultant, PAHO
“By addressing the kids I think it is the first step because they will take it home and they will ask mommy and daddy, “Hey, that water is dirty we are not to drink it.”
Q: “What are you supposed to do before you drink the water?”
Student
“Boil it and make sure that it is clean to drink.”
Q: “I noticed many of you guys brought out your blanks. Will you be tested on what you have seen today?”
Students
“Yes.”
Q: “What did the teacher tell you in the classroom before bringing you out here?”
Student
“To listen carefully, pay attention and read out the instructions that they have.”
The children also learnt how water resources are monitored. On hand to celebrate the occasion was the Hydrological Unit of National Met Service.
Ramon Frutos, Meteorologist
“We monitor the water of Belize to know exactly what is the quantity of water we have in Belize. And not only that but to keep a record of a database of all the water data for the country of Belize for planning purposes and for other purposes: recreation and things like that.”
It is these rivers the water distillery companies use to get their H20. As explained by each representative, they employ a number of methods to produce safe drinking water.
Vivian Molina, Manager, Femagra
“We start off by taking the raw water and our source really is the river and we take the water and send it through the deodorizing tank, through the activated carbo-filters and through the storage tanks. And that is what makes it distilled water. We take that distilled water and we send it through a purified system. So as you noticed we don’t take the raw water straight to the purifying.”
Juliana Reyes, Sales Manager, Zeta
“Well Zeta water is purified through reverse osmosis and it is sterilized by the ultra light process. That is the way how we purify our water.”
Efrain Moguel, Sales Supervisor, Crystal
“We use three different processes. We use the reverse osmosis process, the ultraviolet filtration and oziation. These systems take out the oils, minerals, dissolve particles, bacteria from water, the color and the scent and basically purifies the water that you receive.”
Following the one-day fair PAHO will be moving into the classrooms next week to demonstrate to students what they can do to make water safe to drink.
